Arizona Sen. John McCain, White House trade jabs over Yemen raid

By KTAR.com | February 9, 2017 at 8:53 amUPDATED: February 9, 2017 at 3:23 pm

PHOENIX — U.S. Sen. John McCain and the White House are at odds again, this time over remarks the Arizona statesman made about a military raid in the Middle East that left a Navy SEAL and civilians dead.

McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told NBC News on Wednesday the raid couldn’t be called a success because the “objective was to kill the bad guys but also capture some of them.”

Navy SEAL Ryan Owens was killed in the January raid on al-Qaida targets, along with an 8-year-old girl.

The White House responded that the raid was a success, with tweets from President Donald Trump and spokesman Sean Spicer’s perturbed comments at a press conference that “anybody who undermines the success of that raid owes an apology and [does] a disservice to the life of Chief Owens.”

Trump weighed in Thursday morning.

Sen. McCain should not be talking about the success or failure of a mission to the media. Only emboldens the enemy! He's been losing so….

The president has made references to McCain and losing before. Trump called the Vietnam War veteran a “loser” because he was captured. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said while campaigning in July 2015. “… I like people who weren’t captured.”